Our animal companions, (pets) truly do become family members and when their time here in the physical form has come to an end and they have passed and joined your ancestors in death, the pain can be unbearable. The passing of a loved one often prompts one to explore what is beyond the veil of death and to seek answers from those who seem to know something about such matters and many turn to psychics and mediums for answers.

There is nothing wrong with seeking answers about the bigger questions in life, the problem is that many times you get different and conflicting information from multiple sources, when each source is posed with the same question. When seeking out answers remember that if someone can tell you what your pet is thinking in detail, that they had better be able to describe that animal and very specific details about them to verify their connection. If you are asked to provide a wealth of detail about your loved one in order to establish a connection, ask additional questions once a “connection” has been “established” in order to verify the strength of the connection. For example, I might ask questions such as favorite place to sleep, type of diet, what time of year they came into the family, and other very specific questions.

As a psychic medium and animal communicator who has provided thousands of connections over the past nine years, I would say that it is safe to say that I have a little bit of knowledge with regards to the big reincarnation question.

Every week I am asked about reincarnation and if and when a beloved animal companion will be returning to you during this lifetime in another body of the same species, or in some cases another species altogether, such as a dog coming back as a cat or a human.

Here is my response: No. Your animal will not be returning to you in another physical form during this present lifetime of yours, and here is why I know this.

Every animal that I have reached out to who has passed has come through, very rarely it has taken more than one attempt to make contact, but in the vast majority of the cases I establish contact fairly quickly.

Regardless of what time period your past animals are from, they are able to come through with ease.

Your animals who have passed inform me that they will interact with new and or existing animals in your home, this can sometimes lead someone to believe that their past animal has returned as a new animal is exhibiting behaviours that similar or the same as your past animal. It is simply your past animal coaching your new animal, for fun and to demonstrate that they are still present in the home.

I am yet to connect with a single animal that has revealed that they had come back from a previous pets body.

I have never had a past animal tell me that they are coming back in another body.

If they reincarnated as some would have us believe, our animals would suffer form the same thing that we do, no solid memories of our past lives and relationships, thus making reincarnation a pointless exercise.

Our loved ones continue to watch over us in spirit and in reading after reading I have brought forth solid confirmations of our past animals and human companions watch our current day to day activities.

In one reading a client had been informed by another “psychic” that her cat was going to come back to her at a local shelter and the charlatan went so far as to describe the physical appearance that the new body would look like. This was after she asked me where her cat was at the time of the reading, I saw the cat on a dresser in a box. It turns out the cats ashes were where I was describing.

In my experience those who claim to know when and where your animal is going to reincarnate and come back to you are simply fleecing the grieving.

It’s all about burden of proof. With only a name and species, I, or any other good psychic medium will describe in detail your animals physical appearance, breed, age, manner of passing, diet, favorite activities, how acquired, favorite person, favorite treats, personality, living arrangements, and much, much more.

Bottom line is I believe that our loved ones wait for us in spirit and that once we join them in spirit we can have full closure and bring everything full circle. After reuniting in spirit, I believe that our journey may continue together, provided that is what the two of you agree to.

No photos should be required to make a telepathic connection with a loved one in spirit or with a living animal.

There is a lot of information out there on how to meditate. Some of it accurate and some of it designed to sell you books, CD’s and workshops. As a psychic medium and animal communicator who never embraced meditation on a formal level, either prior to recognizing and developing my abilities as a medium or after coming in to my work as a psychic, I have a vastly different viewpoint than many people on the subject of meditation.

Just as with any practice, there are varied directions that you can go in. Either you can utilize meditation for relaxation or you can use it to increase your abilities to communicate with spirit and or animals.

When seeking relaxation, most traditional meditation techniques will be adequate. By looking at each piece of information in or mind, identifying it, acknowledging it and discarding it, we are able to achieve a greater state of relaxation. The problem with this technique, is that any communications coming in by way of telepathic means (which is how most spirit communication and animal communication takes place) will be discarded through this process.

When seeking to establish communication with spirits and animals the process is different. While it is important to have a relatively calm mind, there is no benefit to tossing out all the material in your mind, as you will be removing all of the incoming messages that you are looking to connect with.

The first thing to do, is to understand how the process works. Essentially our minds are like a powerful laptop computer that is on a wifi connection. The laptop in this analogy is much like the mind in that it can display content from a variety of sources, a DVD, a computer disc, a webcam, a camcorder, streaming content over the internet, images and information from your hard drive and much more.

Just as the computer uses binary code as it’s operating language, the same is true of the mind. At it’s base, all communication, nay all functions of the computer are built upon binary code, I see the mind as being no different. This binary code, a series of ones and zeros, can be utilized to create content that is rich in color, movement and sound – quite remarkable when you think about it, and all without being connected to the source of the content as when pulling in information over a wifi connection.

Back to the meditation – so the goal is to go into the computer known as the mind and to parse out or differentiate the sources of the information contained within it and to determine their source.

First you have to identify a piece of information.

For example, you “see” a train in your mind.

Now you need to know the following:

Is the type of train important?

What kind of train is it?

Is it about this specific train, or about trains in general?

Is the reference tied to an event that is related in some way to a train?

For example, recently I had a dog who showed me a train. It seemed to be a bit of an older passenger train that had been kept up and was still in use, but not Amtrak. I asked my client if there would be a reason to see an image of a train coming from her dog. She said “no” that her dog had not traveled by train. I again had to ask about the train reference and she said that she thought that perhaps it was related to a conversation that took place among dinner guests at her house the night before. They had been discussing the wine train that tours the vineyards in Napa or Sonoma Valley and asked why her dog brought it up. Her dog went on to discuss the dinner guests involved in the conversation and related her personal feelings regarding them and the way they treated her.

The dogs information was in no way tied to a train, she did however use the train reference as a marker as to a certain time and place when a conversation had occurred regarding a certain train and of course what she wanted to talk about was the parties involved in the “train” conversation.

Of course much of the information in your mind is self generated, so it is important to quite your own thoughts and to quickly look at and acknowledge information generated by yourself so as to clear up the ability to see the “other” information coming in. It’s much like cleaning up a cluttered desk, if individual notes, projects and such are allowed to clutter up the work surface, it is hard to see any new messages that may be dropped by your desk, with all the clutter, they get lost in the shuffle and become part of the background noise, no different then your own self generated clutter. However with a clean workspace, you can clearly see any new pieces of information that are dropped on your desk, they stand out as much as a large black mark on a white board.

As you clear your mind of your own clutter, separate those thoughts that do not seem to come from you and set them to the side to be reviewed in depth. To determine if something came from your own thought processes, ask yourself this simple question. Did this piece of information originate from me? Did I generate this thought and or image? You should feel a bit of an energy burst, a mild adrenaline shock or static electrical discharge for your “yes” responses, and a “flatline” for a “no” response. I suggest asking the question three times, once you get a reply, ask the opposite, checking to make sure you do not get the same reply and then return to your original question and if you still get the same response, you know that you are receiving information accurately.

Once you have identified information in your mind that did not seem to originate from you, it’s time to review who they are coming from. Common sources would be family on the other side, (including animals) living animals, passed friends, spirit guides, individuals associated with recent or lifelong hobbies and or interests and much more. Determining as to if the person is male or female and as to if they are someone you know on a personal level are very helpful in identifying who is trying to communicate with you. As this posting is about meditation, further discussion in this area will take place at another time.

The key to meditation is intent, intent, intent.

If we wish to connect with a loved one in spirit and put forth the effort to do so in our mind, simply by asking them to connect with us and send us a sign that they are there, we should go into what I consider a relaxed, yet alert state. Once clearing the clutter of the mind, and checking to see if we had any unread messages hanging out in our mind, it is time to send out the request for contact, followed by sitting back and waiting for a response.

Just like when working with walkie-talkies, you must take your finger off of the send button in order to receive. The same is true of communicating on a telepathic level, you must stop sending … in order to receive.

After a few seconds, or even immediately and in rare cases after some time, you should “see” something “pop up” in your mind. Perhaps the information coming in is a reference to the person you wish to connect with, perhaps the information is related to the answer to the question you wished to ask a loved one in spirit. In very rare instances, those we wish to connect with, will not be available. When a spirit is not available, it usually does not mean that they are upset with you, they may simply be unavailable at the time.

One does not have to close their eyes to meditate, you can meditate even while driving. The next time while driving alone on a familiar stretch of fairly simple to negotiate roadway, turn off the stereo, put down your cellphone and instead ask to connect with a loved one in spirit.

I have never gotten “serious” about meditation and yet I communicate with the spirits of loved ones both here and on the other side day in and day out on a professional basis. It was not until I had begun providing readings to the general public that I began to take a few minutes for myself each day or so to sit quietly and check the “voicemail” within my mind. I still do not meditate in the “traditional” sense, and as long as what I do now fills me up with a sense of purpose, a calm energy, and a composed mind, I see no reason to begin monitoring my breathing by counting my inhalations and exhalations as is done with some meditative practices. I meditate to connect with my higher self, those in spirit and those from the animal kingdom. While meditation for relaxation is wonderful, it simply is not what this article is about and should it be something you desire to learn and or practice, I do encourage you to pursue it.

To learn more about the author of this article, psychic medium and animal communicator, Charles Peden, visit www.charlespeden.com.

While providing a recent reading it dawned on me that having the assistance of a psychic medium when conducting genealogical research could be very useful. Allow me to illustrate.

A few years ago I was asked to connect a person with a long lost family member. The only information I was provided was a request to speak with a Native American as she had heard from another family member that “there was Indian blood in her family.”

Very quickly I established a connection with a gentleman who told me that he was the one we were looking for. He told me that he was Osage and that he had met her ancestor in the late 1700s. He himself was part French and had been unwelcome in his tribe “being a half-breed” and so he had left the tribe and became a traveling “medicine man.” He had partnered up with a Frenchman and they traversed the country selling their potions and elixirs from town to town. It was during one of these travels that he met this woman’s relative and he confessed to not knowing that he had made her pregnant. He also told me that he had been with the woman when she was only 16!

It was following the revelation that the girl was only 16 when she became pregnant that really confirmed the individual was who he claimed to be – and that I had a solid connection with him. The only detail that my client was fully aware of, was that her relative was 16 at the time she became pregnant by the Native American and that he had not been around for the child.

What a great connection … they communicated a bit more and than the reading was done. Recently I solved another family mystery. A woman who I had read for several times had requested a fourth reading. Over the course of the past few years she had asked me to connect her with one of her guides, or anyone else in spirit who had a message for her. Each time I gave her a reading, I saw the same individual coming through. He had sandy blonde hair with red highlights, and among other things always was dressed in a plaid shirt. He was fit with a muscular build and and handsome features. She had no idea who he was. He would tell her that he was related to her, but that she did not know him.

During this most recent connection with the “mystery man” the woman who I was reading for, made an ultimatum. She said that unless he revealed his relationship to her, that she would ignore him and have nothing to do with him. He pleaded that it was best if she just accepted his terms and she stood her ground. He then revealed his true identity and relationship to her. He was her real grandfather, her grandmother had an affair, became pregnant and passed off the resulting child as being one of her husbands. Now it became very clear why he had such an interest in her welfare and why he was being so secretive as to his identity. The story he told was quite scandalous, yet fit as the woman remembered that her grandparents relationship had been difficult and fairly loveless, not hard to imagine her grandmother seeking comfort in the arms of another man and then hiding the true identity of the child’ father.

Once I had one of my own relatives come through and apologize for the behavior of another family member. It was not until I reviewed a copy of my family tree that I saw the name of the person who had come through to me. She gave me her name and said that she was to blame in part for the way that one of the men in our family had treated his own family. She gave me the name of the kid she was referring to, which I recognized as being a relative of mine, however I did not recognize her name. It turned out that she was the mother of the family member she was apologizing for, no wonder she felt partly responsible.

All of this has led me to believe that when used properly, a good psychic medium can become an invaluable resource when researching ones family tree. When you really think about it, it’s incredible … the ability to connect with long lost relatives, discover true causes of death, unravel family mysteries and unearth “skeletons” in the closet. I can imagine that this would be useful for those who are adopted and for those who have lost all family records. It is of course important to note that in some cases it may not be a good idea to connect with “long lost” relatives, though I believe in the majority of cases, it would be wonderful to be able to make such connections.

Yesterday I had a few very interesting things take place during a reading. I had been contacted with a request for a reading a few days ago and the woman who I had read for before, informed me that she had recently learned that she had some Native American or Indian blood in her. One of her relatives had after a glass or two of wine revealed a family secret that her great grandmother was half Native American. Now, the woman wanted to try and connect with the Indian who had been the father of one of her relatives.

With nothing more then a suggestion that he was Cherokee and knowing the name of the woman who had him as a father, I began the reading. After a little bit information began to trickle in. I connected with an American Indian who told me that he had been disowned by his own tribe. He told me that he had been “domesticated” that he did not wear traditional clothing but that he wore white mans clothing. He informed me that he could read and write and was very proud of that fact.

As the reading progressed, more and more details came forward. He told me that he was half French and that he was Osage. He told me that he was a traveling salesman, that he sold medicines and such and had a white partner who was an older man whom had taken him in at an early age. He told me that he met the woman in question when she was 16 and that he was not even aware of the fact that he had gotten her pregnant. He expressed great sorrow and sadness at not being a part of his daughters life and of not being aware of her existence until he had passed.

After a few more minutes with “Manny” the Osage Indian who claimed to be half French, I felt that he had provided all the information that he could that was relevant to the woman I was doing the reading for. I then “saw” a bulb, like that of a crocus or daffodil. I asked my client why was it that I saw a bulb? She told me that she had been given a tulip bulb a year ago and after rummaging through some drawers recently, that she had located it and had decided to place it in water. The tulip then told me that he was ready to be planted in soil and that the water he was in got too hot for him. She confirmed that he was on a window sill in direct sun and was in a clear vase that could easily overheat in the direct sunlight. The tulip then told me that there was a tub that was 8 inches tall and which had a cornflower blue color to it, he said that he wanted to be planted in it. The tulip then added that the build up of dead leaves in the tub was too deep and half of them should be removed. Everything was confirmed!

Just when I thought it was over … I “saw” some cuttings that she had taken, they seemed to be vines of some sort. I asked her about the cuttings she had and told me that she had some ivy cuttings that she had planted in her yard. The ivy then told me that they got no sun and were very unhappy. She confirmed that she had planted them alongside the garage where there was no sun … at any time of day. Then I “saw” a succulent. I asked her if she had a succulent, she said that she used to, but that it had died. She told me that an aloe vera plant that she once owned had died at her hands. The planet was left in direct sun for several days and when she saw that she had burned it a little bit, she had brought it inside and then she had over watered it, drowning it. The aloe plant was very unhappy and told me that he had once been quite large and had been thriving until she screwed up with him. The kicker was that the aloe vera plant had been the prior resident of the cornflower blue tub!

After the reading I was given several additional confirmations. It had been confirmed that the American Indian had gotten the relative pregnant when she was 16. The Osage had contact with the French right around the same time period that Manny would have been born. Traveling medicine salesmen or snake oil salesmen were often Native Americans. A photo of a family member who was a descendant from the woman who was Manny’s daughter bears a striking resemblance to the facial features one would tie to the Osage or other tribes even though he had always claimed that he was a Swede.

So … I guess it’s just a matter of time before I will be appearing at a nursery or garden center near you, providing readings on your plants. Plants are living things too and they too can communicate with us. Many years ago “The Secret Life of Plants” was published, it is still a good read. I have heard of gardens in places like Ireland that are cared for by intuitive gardners who “talk” with the plants to know how best to care for them.